


bricks and mortar build a house

by teenytinylion



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Brief description of dead bodies, F/M, Found Family, Gen, M/M, Orochimaru and Danzo are not #besties AU, Panic Attacks, Tsunade adopts Tenzou AU, inspired by sloaners' comic you know the one, tsunade's haemophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 19:57:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20087899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teenytinylion/pseuds/teenytinylion
Summary: Dark things have been going on behind Sarutobi's back for a while now and he is finally fed up with indulging his once-friend and team-mate Danzo any longer. He sets Jiraiya and Orochimaru on his tracks in hopes of giving his students a cause to put their effort in, to keep them from falling apart any further. And truly, he expected a lot of things, but finding a child without a family or a history with Hashirama-sama's DNA was certainly not one of them. But Sarutobi has faith in his students to take care of this foundling.





	bricks and mortar build a house

**Author's Note:**

> but the laughter of children makes a home

It was a rare occasion for Jiraiya to be at a loss for words, even in the face of terror, but this was something else entirely. He had not known what to expect, when he turned on the light and the flickering striplights came to life. Orochimaru was standing at his left side, looking into the lab that stretched out before them, though he kept his face more in check than Jiraiya could.

Before them stood numerous (60, to be precise, Jiraiya would later learn as they cleaned out the facility) cylindrical tanks, filled with a liquid that was lit green by the lights above. The stench of rot filled the air, making it hard to breath for Jiraiya, even after having seen the battlefield quite often. He found no words to convey what he felt, when he saw what was in the tanks, so he just kept his mouth shut as he followed Orochimaru deeper into the room. In each tank swam a body - a child. Some looked as though they were merely sleeping, but most were in varying states of decay.

While Orochimaru advanced further into the harshly lit room, Jiraiya stood frozen in place, staring at the tank in front of him. Inside was a girl, around four years old he guessed, naked, her belly and limbs were bloated with gas, the skin discolored in a yellow-ish tinge, with large blisters on her torso. Deep green lines ran across her yellow skin like jagged bolts of lightning - biliverdin, from the bacterial decay of her red blood cells, Orochimaru informs him later.

Jiraiya doesn’t know how long he stared at this poor poor girl, but apparently long enough for Orochimaru to notice and to regard him with an impatient stare when Jiraiya finally looked up to meet his eyes again.

“This, I’m-” Jiraiya managed to choke out, before turning around on his heel and making his way to the entrance of the lab. A few steps outside the door were all the body control he could muster before he threw up in the dark corridor. He pressed a hand to the wall to support himself somewhat as he retched up his breakfast until even his bile had left his body. Shivering and utterly miserable he braced his hands against his thighs and carefully pushed himself into an upright position. His neck and hands were damp with cold sweat and his throat burned sharply.

Jiraiya had not noticed Orochimaru coming up to him, until his friend pressed a hand against Jiraiya’s back, rubbing slow circles into his skin.

***

The moon was already high upon the sky, when Jiraiya and Orochimaru entered the Hokage’s office to make their final report on their investigation today. Still reeling from today’s events Jiraiya was happy to let Orochimaru tell Sandaime about their discoveries, as he let himself flop down on a chair, stretching out his legs and covering his eyes with his hand.

He had known that Danzo did not shy away from cruelty, but this was truly not what he had expected, when they started to investigate Sensei’s former team-mate, after even Sensei himself had grown suspicious of Danzo. First discovering the Root-Division of ANBU, and now this lab full of rotting children. Jiraiya did not know what to think about any of this anymore. And worst of all, one of the children had been still alive by the time they were finished with collecting the evidence and had moved on to emptying the tanks to prepare the children for autopsy and funeral - they didn’t even have names that they could’ve put on their headstones.

When Jiraiya rose to his feet, after Sandaime had dismissed them, he felt like an old man even though he had just recently celebrated his 33rd birthday. He shuffled out of the office behind Orochimaru and walked silently with him to the exit of the Hokage tower. As he waited for Orochimaru to close his Jonin-vest to protect him somewhat against the cold of the winter night, he stretched his arms above his head and groaned loudly as his joins popped.

“I need a drink after today, are you coming?”

Orochimaru didn’t even rib him for indulging in the so-called worst vices known to shinobi, so today must have left quite the impact on him as well. He nodded in silence and followed Jiraiya to a dingy bar in Konoha’s red-light district that suited to occasion perfectly.

***

By the time they made their way back to Jiraiya’s apartment, shoe box more like, Jiraiya was pleasantly drunk. Ha, as if anything about this day could be pleasant. If he’d felt a little less like shit and little more like an actual human, Jiraiya might have even laughed at his oxymoron, but as it was he just wanted to get home and go to bed and never think about these children - these fucking children rotting right under Konoha’s nose, worse, on Konoha’s behalf - again.

“I think I’m going to be sick again.” Jiraiya told Orochimaru much more intelligible than he would have thought he could manage and stumbled over to a dark back alley. Orochimaru followed him, obviously exasperated but keeping his mouth shut about it, and held Jiraiya’s shoulder so that he wouldn’t fall to the ground face first.

“Let’s just get you home, Jiraiya, you’re a mess.” Orochimaru sighed when Jiraiya was done and standing again. Jiraiya nodded numbly and followed after his friend, making their slow way to his apartment.

It was a welcome change of routine that Orochimaru didn’t just drop him off at the door, but actually came inside with him. He ushered Jiraiya into the bathroom to brush his teeth, so he wouldn’t have to endure that acidic stench anymore, and went to work in the small kitchen-living room-bedroom that Jiraiya called home. After a short search through the wildly disorganized cupboards, Orochimaru set up a kettle with tea water and waited for Jiraiya to return.

While Orochimaru prepared their tea, Jiraiya had changed into his sleeping clothes, which looked positively comical on the tall man. Orochimaru managed to suppress a snicker as he watched Jiraiya shuffle out of the bathroom clothed in a frog-patterned (really?) shirt with too short sleeves and sweatpants with too short legs.

“Here” he said as he pressed a large cup of tea into Jiraiya’s hands, after the other man had sat down on the edge of his bed. Orochimaru finished his own cup leaning against the back of the ratty couch, watching Jiraiya the whole time. He did not like to admit it, but he rather wouldn’t leave his comrade alone tonight, though he surely would not impose on Jiraiya’s privacy like this.

“Get some sleep Jiraiya. We’ll see each other tomorrow at Sandaime-sama’s meeting.” Orochimaru told his team-mate as he turned to place the cup in the sink and to leave. Behind him Jiraiya cleared his throat and set down his own cup on the bedside table from the sound of it. “Orochimaru, stay here tonight, okay?”

Not commenting on his relief at the request, Orochimaru simply nodded and began to undress himself to his underclothes. Now in winter, even though Konoha’s winters were far milder than Kumo’s, Orochimaru always wore several layers to keep warm, so at least he didn’t have to worry about finding something in Jiraiya’s wardrobe that even remotely fit him.

“Shove over then” he ordered as we went to lay down next to Jiraiya, who promptly followed his request. Pulling the blanket over himself Orochimaru mused that this situation also had the benefit of Jiraiya practically being a human furnace. Briefly he wondered whether a shinobi’s natural chakra affinity would affect their metabolism - he’d have to look into that some time, but not now. Though he was not affected by today as much as Jiraiya, the day’s events had left Orochimaru exhausted as well, and he would not waste one more minute of good warm sleep contemplating the basic nature of chakra release.

***

Almost two weeks had gone by since their discovery, when news reached Jiraiya and Orochimaru that their missing team-mate had returned from her self-imposed exile. And evidently she was not at all happy with the situation. Even from the streets the two shinobi could hear the shouting match going on in the Hokage’s office. It wasn’t really a match, Jiraiya supposed, when only one person was yelling. He was glad though that this one-sided argument reached its climax, before he and Orochimaru entered the Hokage tower, judging from the chair that shattered through a window and smashed onto the street below. Jiraiya grinned fondly and even heard Orochimaru snicker a little - that was the Tsunade they knew.

When they entered Sandaime-sama’s office the scene had calmed a little. Sarutobi-sensei was propping up his head with his hand and Tsunade sat across from him, drinking sake. Without further ado the Hokage dropped the bomb that he wanted to discuss with them today.

“The child you found lives. He tells us his name is Tenzo and that Danzo recruited him for this… experiment, but he does not remember anything else, no home, no family, no nothing.”

Jiraiya could cheer and cry at the same time. He was excited that at least for this little one they hadn’t been too late, but to imagine the crushing guilt of having survived when everyone else hadn’t, not knowing who he even was besides a tool for the village that had ought to protect him - he shook his head, how was this little guy going to make it in life, when he was really utterly alone?

“Furthermore, after studying the research that was left at the lab and conducting several DNA tests at the hospital, I think it’s safe to say that this Tenzo shares portions of his DNA with Shodaime-sama. The goal was apparently to create someone able to use the Mokuton. Which is, for now, our secondary concern. We need to find a place to keep this child safe for the time being.”

Sarutobi had folded his hands in contemplation and regarded his former students, now reunited again, after the second war had left their team and each of them individually broken in some way or another. He waited for a response with a serene patience he had been forced to cultivate in their genin days.

“He’s my family and I will not watch while this rotten council of yours does him even more wrongs.” Tsunade huffed and slammed her fist down on the desk hard enough to crack the wood and to send the neat piles of paper flying, accentuating her opinion on the matter. Only half hiding his satisfaction with the prompt answer Sarutobi nodded and shot Jiraiya and Orochimaru a pointed gaze. “I’m sure you will find great joy in helping Tsunade with this task.” After a pause and with a smirk he added, “Raising a child is one of the greatest pleasures in life after all.” Jiraiya was sure that Sarutobi-sensei was absolutely lying through his teeth, given the fact how often he complained about little Asuma’s antics - then again, maybe Asuma was just a horribly exhausting child.

***

Moving Tenzo into the Senju compound surely was an awkward affair. The child, while having grown at least accustomed to the presence of Tsunade and her friends, had never really been out and about in the real world. It was horribly over-stimulating all around and Tsunade was not surprised at all when she found the little guy huddled in a corner of his new bedroom, his lower lip wobbling suspiciously. She had only known him for a few weeks at this point, but he had already wormed his way into her cracked heart with those big dark eyes of his and his adorable questions at everything and anything he didn’t understand.  
“Oh, Tenzo” she sighed and went to sit down next to him, offering him an arm to cuddle against her, but not forcing him to do so, “It’s alright if you don’t feel safe here… or anywhere, but I will watch out for you, alright?” She kept him company for a while, before it was time to prepare at least some kind of dinner. Had it just been herself Tsunade would’ve went out to eat something or skip dinner altogether in favor of a liquid meal so to speak, but now with Tenzo here she acted like an responsible adult to the absolute best of her abilities.

That night and all nights for a few weeks after this day they ate dinner (and breakfast and lunch, too) on the floor of Tenzo’s bedroom. Tsunade was just happy that at least here in his little room, with a shoji door opening to the vast and beautifully wild garden of the Senju compound, Tenzo felt at ease. It made her heart ache with a sweet fondness to see this little guy watching the garden her grandfather had planted with such huge eyes, always discovering something new from his place behind the opened shoji, that he would tell her about while they ate together.

“Y’know, you can go out there and… well, maybe touch it? Look around some more…” She felt awkward saying it and watched Tenzo worry his lower lip and wring his little hands with an uncertain look in his eyes. “I’ll protect you out there, alright? You know that Tsuna always keeps you safe, eh?” She squats down in front of him and lightly touches her finger to his nose. Tenzo giggles almost without a sound at the gesture and nods in confirmation, and Tsunade feels like her heart might just burst out of her chest and run a few rounds around the village.

“Let’s go then, little leaf, we have much to discover!” She said, raising her hand in the mockery of a battle cry. Tsunade stood again and wrapped her hand around Tenzo’s as they made their way on a rough stone path through the garden. They had an all around good time out in the rich greenery, Tenzo shrieking first in panic then in delight when dragonflies came over from the pond to sit on his hands. When he had touched the rough bark of a tall pine tree something in his expression had changed, it looked like he had discovered something truly great. Tsunade was sure that after this, that Tenzo had not only inherited her grandfather’s Mokuton but his fondness of the nature living around him as well.

***

With the worst of Tenzo’s anxiety regarding his surroundings out of the way, Jiraiya had started to teach him how to read and write. Tsunade always loomed near-by, wary of what her pervy friend might teach his young disciple, but it turned out that her worries were apparently unfounded - Jiraiya honestly surpassed himself teaching Tenzo. While he had always been a little too rough around the edges, sometimes even harsh with others, with Tenzo he seemed to have all the patience in the world. As it turned out Tenzo was a wickedly smart kid, not to Tsunade’s surprise, but all the more to Jiraiya’s pride. He cheered like he had just won a ten thousand-ryo bet, when Tenzo awkwardly read him a haiku he had written himself.

The little boy also showed great promise regarding his gift, if one could really call it that. Orochimaru had started teaching him to use his chakra, and it filled both Tsunade and Jiraiya with an anxiety they hadn’t known before to see Tenzo scaling trees and standing on water. But under Orochimaru’s watchful eye Tenzo was as safe as he could be. His first tries with Mokuton were questionable at best, but when he got the hang of it, he seemed to really like what he was able to achieve. As if the the plants in the garden new that a part of their creator was among them, the garden came to life in a way it hadn’t since Tsunade’s grandmother Mito had passed.

It had took Orochimaru a great effort and a lot talking-to from Jiraiya and Tsunade to get him to accept Tenzo as his student. Even after the years passed the wound of Nawaki’s untimely death had barely scabbed over and was reopened much too easily. But here inside the walls of Tsunade’s home, Orochimaru supposed, Tenzo was safe enough that he might as well teach him the basics of Ninjutsu. With his ability in molding his chakra, Tenzo’s confidence had grown as well, much to the delight of all three of his so-to-speak-parents. They even took him out for ramen at Ichiraku’s sometimes.

It made Jiraiya and even Orochimaru a little sad that they had been called away by Sandaime-sama on another mission to investigate the true extent of Danzo’s Root network. But their little leaf had taken it in stride, vowing to train hard at Ninjutsu and at calculating until they returned. Orochimaru was happy to hear ist, obviously, but it had come at the cost of Jiraiya not shutting up about it for at least a day after they had left Konoha, which left him annoyed and exasperatedly proud.

***

Tsunade thought she was doing a pretty good job of taking over Tenzo’s lessons until her two men returned. She had rifled through all of Konoha’s archives, her grandfather’s and great uncle's writings to find everything that had ever been written about the Mokuton. Tenzo seemed to be satisfied as well with the reading she had brought him. At dinner he would tell her about the discoveries he had made in the scrolls and Tsunade would give him her thoughts on it, not that she was much of an expert, but being a Legendary Sannin had to count for something, she guessed.

Things went sideways rather fast though.

With Tenzo training in the garden, Tsunade had assumed her place in the shadow of their home reading into an interesting scroll on Fuinjutsu she had found while researching the Mokuton. She was immersed in it so deeply that her head only shot up when she heard a squawk, a dull sound, and a pained gasp. The scroll she held in her hand fell to the ground and Tsunade was up and standing in the blink of an eye, already taking a step to run to Tenzo, but what she saw made her stop in her motion. Tenzo was lying on the ground, pressing a hand to his head with blood seeping through his fingers.

Gods, Tsunade wanted to help him so bad, her heart screamed at her to run to him, take care of him, but her head only saw the red running down his arm and face, that blood, so red- redredredbloodbattledeathhelpless- Dan.

Tsunade gasped an almost painful breath and pressed her hand against her mouth, she was breathing much too fast, she was starting to feel dizzy - where were Orochimaru and Jiraiya? She couldn’t, she just couldn’t do this - she had failed as a medic before, she -

“Tsuna…” Tenzo breathed weakly, looking around for her in disorientation. His head hurt, he couldn’t see with the blood running into his eyes, he felt as though he didn’t know up from down and left from right, he just wanted it to stop hurting. “Tsuna please-” he tried again, trying to reach out to where he thought Tsunade would stand.

He was so small, gods, he was so small, laying there and Tsunade was a fucking coward, she wanted to scream, run to him, run away, everything at the same time, but somehow she managed to calm herself enough to take the few shaky steps to reach Tenzo and knelt down beside him. She had a hard time keeping herself from throwing up, or fainting or perhaps both, but she grit her teeth together and steeled herself against it - she refused to let Tenzo suffer at the hands of this village, and she would refuse to let him suffer because of her own inabilites.

“Don’t worry, little leaf, Tsuna’s here, you’re gonna be fine, we can do this, we can do this, you hear me? You’ll be alright-” She didn’t even know if she was trying to calm herself or Tenzo at this point, but either way she had a mission and she would not fail it, not for the life of her. “Let me look at it, yeah?” As gently as she could she peeled away Tenzo’s hand from his head to look at the wound he had sustained when he slipped and hit his head on a rock.

It was just a cut, not too deep, not too large, just bleeding like hell, but she could do this. Having assessed the damage done, Tsunade allowed herself the respite of closing her eyes. “Listen up, I’ll heal you know, it will probably feel a little weird, but together we can do this, okay?” “Okay, Tsuna” Tenzo answered softly and she could feel him nod against the hand she had placed on his head. Taking a deep breath, she started to pour chakra into her hand, not too much, she needed to be careful with that, he was still so small.

When she felt that the damage had been repaired, she stopped the chakra flowing through her hand, but she didn’t take away her hand nor did she open her eyes, until Tenzo awkwardly tapped against her wrist. “That was scary… but I feel much better now. Thank you, Tsuna.” Her eyes snapped open and she stared at Tenzo. There was still blood all over his face and hands, but the cut was gone and he smiled this cute shy trademark smile of his. Tsunade felt as if she was going to implode and explode at the same time, her heart stopping and running a mile an hour. She’d done it, she’d really done it. Tsunade pulled Tenzo up towards her and embraced him fiercely, pressing him against her like she never wanted to let go again. And if she cried big fat tears until she couldn’t anymore before she let him go, then that was no one’s business but her own.

“Listen,” she rasped as she wiped her tears away, “how do you like Senju Tenzo for a name?”

***

By the time it was dark outside, Tenzo had cleaned up and eaten, and Tsunade had more or less gathered the pieces that she’d broken into and placed them back together, but she was still exhausted and just wished that Orochimaru and Jiraiya could be here. Despite claiming he was perfectly fine, Tenzo was still wired after his stunt during training and couldn’t fall asleep so he had come to Tsunade to watch TV with her. It had taken all of five minutes for him to fall asleep against her side, so she gathered him up in her arms and held him tight until she, too, fell asleep. She would regret it in the morning that she didn’t sleep in a proper bed, but at the moment Tsunade did not care about that at all.

She had no idea how long she slept like this, when her head snapped up at the sound of the door being opened. It took a second for her sleep-addled brain to register what was going on, but once she recognized Orochimaru and Jiraiya’s bickering, she relaxed again and waited for them to come to the living room.

“Hey, Tsuna- oh” Jiraiya’s booming voice hushed to a whisper, “we can leave, if you want to sleep, okay?”

Tsunade shook her head silently and got up, careful not to wake Tenzo up.

“Stay here, both of you.” She whispered, regarding both of them with a small smile. Since she was already in her sleeping clothes, Tsunade made her way to her bedroom and carefully laid down, Tenzo still in her arms, leaving enough place on each of her sides for another person to fit.

She was already half asleep again, when the blanket was lifted off her and Jiraiya pressed against her back, wrapping an arm around her, while Orochimaru lightly placed his hand on her hip, pressed a short kiss into Tenzo’s hair and settled down in front of Tsunade. She felt Jiraiya shifting against her and saw his hand curling in Orochimaru’s hair.

“Good night.” She whispered and held Tenzo a little tighter, smiling into his hair. She might not be able to let go of Dan, but her heart was big enough for more than one person.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this! I just really needed to get this out of my system and pretty much churned it out in one go, it's pure self-indulgence. I even made some art for our favorite gross old people threesome ( https://teenytinylion.tumblr.com/post/186724916042/legendary-sannin-lovers )


End file.
